Keira Knightley tends to keep details of her personal life very private — so much so that she's never had a public social media account and has even sued media outlets for defamation (which she won), but one thing the actress often talks about in her life is her relationship with her husband of over 10 years, musician James Righton.
After meeting through a mutual friend, Pride and Prejudice The star and former Klaxons keyboardist is now married with two children, and Righton continues to accompany Knightley as her plus one at fashion shows and red carpet events.
Read on to read the couple's complete relationship timeline, from their first date to their current life as a family of four.
June 25, 2024: Keira and James attend the Chanel Couture show together.
After attending a Chanel show together in 2022, Knightley and Righton are set to make it a tradition by stepping out together at the house's Autumn/Winter 2024-25 Haute Couture show in Paris.
For the event, Knightley looked dreamy in a white A-line dress with puffed sleeves and a bow neckline, paired with a quilted white bag and black and white heels, while Righton donned a white T-shirt under a black suit and his usual black Gucci loafers.
March 17, 2023: Keira talks about their 10th wedding anniversary.
When Knightley appeared The Drew Barrymore ShowHost Barrymore points out that Knightley and Righton are approaching their 10th wedding anniversary. Pirates of the Caribbean The star responded: “Yeah, we made it. We made it. We have two kids and we made it for 10 years. It's a miracle.”
She humorously added: “I met my husband when I was drunk. I was pretty drunk on our first few dates so I don't really remember much.”
May 26, 2022: The two walk the red carpet together for the first time in three years.
Knightley and Righton returned to the red carpet for the first performance of the ABBA Voyage virtual concert at London's ABBA Arena as the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic. For the event, Knightley wore a little black dress with a matching cropped tuxedo blazer and black heels with bows tied around her ankles, while Righton opted for an olive green button-up and black suit, teaming it with dress shoes.
June 8, 2021: Keira talks about spending the pandemic with her family.
In an interview Harper's Bazaar UKKnightley says she dressed up to boost her family's morale at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. “We have a trampoline in the garden and we decided that we were only allowed to wear dresses on it,” she says. “I wore red lipstick every day and wore every Chanel piece in my closet, and my daughter Edie had Chanel ribbons braided into her hair and fairy wings.” Righton was only allowed to take part if he wore a selection of “peacock-yellow Gucci suits.”
Knightley added, “I thought, what's the point of having all these lovely things tucked away in my wardrobe when it feels so apocalyptic and scary outside? I felt so important to make my kids really happy! So I did and I forgot about it. And then the shopping would arrive and you had to wipe it all down before you put it away? Remember? Things got extreme when I found a funny brown apple and my husband said he'd boiled it because someone might have touched it. I said, 'Yeah, but I can't eat them again!' It was a really weird time. We were wearing really fancy clothes and boiling apples!”
September 13, 2019: The couple's second child, a daughter, is born.
Knightley and Righton secretly welcomed their second daughter, Delilah Knightley Righton, in September of that year, though neither made the announcement public until October.
In an interview Telegraph The following month, Knightley name-checked Delilah and spoke about her breastfeeding experience, saying, “We would be apart for a total of six hours, so I pumped enough milk for three feedings,” and talked about using a breast pump, jokingly adding, “If I don't do this, my boobs will explode. They literally fly everywhere.”
May 2, 2019: Keira announces she's pregnant for the second time.
Knightley was seen leaving the Chanel J12 cocktail party in Paris in a cream scoop-neck dress with a long see-through skirt that accentuated her growing belly, and with this subtle move, Knightley revealed to the world that she is expecting her second child with Righton, four years after welcoming Eddie.
May 26, 2015: Keira gives birth to her first child, a daughter.
May proved to be a lucky month for the couple as Knightley gave birth to their first child, Eddie Knightley-Righton, just weeks after their second wedding anniversary.
Knightley talks about motherhood Elle“Love is an amazing thing. It's such a primal, primal love. It's really extraordinary,” but the hard part, she adds, is, “And the ability to keep going without sleep. It's not fun. I never thought I'd actually be able to keep it up for the length of time that I've done it.”
February 2015: Keira shows off her belly at the Oscars.
When Knightley attended the 2015 Oscars with Righton, she showed off her growing belly in a tan Valentino dress with a tulle skirt covered in embroidered flowers and French text.
December 2014: Keira becomes pregnant with her first child.
A little over a year and a half after getting married, Knightley and Righton received the happy news that they were expecting their first child. people, Us WeeklyCBS News.
December 3, 2013: Keira reuses her wedding dress on the red carpet.
For their second red carpet event together, Knightley re-wore the Chanel mini dress she wore to her wedding in May. The couple walked the red carpet at the Serious Fun Children's Network London Gala at the Roundhouse, where Knightley added a surprise touch by wearing a sheer long-sleeved top underneath her wedding dress, complete with embroidered flowers across the chest, and gold strappy sandals.
September 7, 2013: James helps Keira prepare for her musical role.
Preparing for a musical film Start againKnightley enlisted the help of her musician husband to get into character. People are like, “He helped me learn guitar, but I don't think I'll ever do that again. I'm bad and maybe he thought it was too stressful.”
She jokingly added that playing guitar wasn't for her, saying, “My fingers were in terrible shape. They were calloused and looked awful. I stopped playing and tried to start again, but my fingers hurt so much that I'm not going to do it anymore. I leave all the playing to him.”
May 13, 2013: Honeymoon in Corsica.
Shortly after their quiet nuptials, the couple continued the celebration by honeymooning to the French island of Corsica, where they were photographed swimming in the ocean, holding hands while walking along sandy beaches, and sharing kisses during several boat rides on the Mediterranean.
May 4, 2013: The couple married in the south of France.
A year after getting engaged, Knightley and Righton exchanged rings in the South of France and in England trendonly 11 people attended.
The ceremony took place at Mazan's town hall, followed by a reception at Knightley's mother's home, attended by around 50 guests.
For her wedding, Knightley wore a dress from Chanel's Spring/Summer 2006 Haute Couture collection. The understated silver mini dress was made from strips of tulle, which Knightley layered under a white tweed jacket by Karl Lagerfeld and accessorized with pink and grey ballet pumps. For a romantic touch, she added a floral garland in her hair.
The couple later married in a private ceremony for friends, with Knightley decked out in a £50,000 flower-covered Valentino dress. In July 2014, she said: Elle UK“I wore this dress to a ceremony in the woods for just my friends, because in the woods, the dress has to have flowers on it.”
May 2012: James proposes.
Just a year after they started dating, Reuters Knightley's publicist, Sarah Keane, told the outlet, “We can confirm that Keira is engaged to James Righton,” after Righton proposed with a round diamond engagement ring set in a thin gold ring.
2011: They meet at a dinner party.
In an interview ParentsKnightley revealed that she and Righton first met not through some famous person, as is often mistaken, but through a mutual friend called Tim.[We met] “Not through Alexa Chung like everyone says, but through our friend Tim,” she said, adding, “We were pretty drunk.”
Knightley may have been attracted to Righton's outgoing personality, she said. Parents“He's the kind of guy who's the brightest light in any room, whereas I'm the kind of guy who sits in the corner. And he's a lot nicer than me.”
Joel is an Editorial & Social Media Assistant at HarpersBAZAAR.com, covering all things celebrity news. When he's away from the keyboard, you can find him singing off-key at a concert, searching for flashy staples at a thrift store, or browsing the bookstore for the next gay romance novel.
